Mobility has become quite the buzzword in the fitness industry for the past few years. But what does it actually mean to train mobility? and how do you go about it ?
I'll try and keep this as brief, simple, and straight to the point.
*Side note: I have a pretty awesome announcement at the end of this article!
Often times a lot of people tend to confuse the terms flexibility and mobility with one another. However, they are both completely different but also correlate with one another.
First lets give mobility or functional mobility and flexibility definitions.
Mobility: the ability to ACTIVELY achieve a desired range of motion through a neuromuscular contraction.
Flexibility: the ability to PASSIVELY achieve a range of motion.
The two key words that separate them from one another is that one is done through ACTIVE means and the other through PASSIVE means.
It's been known that having passive flexibility without the ability to actively control it, is pretty useless. I wouldn't take that as an absolute statement, but it gets the message across. In order to live healthy lives, perform well in our sports, or physical activities, it's optimal to be able to control our desired ranges of motion.
Last time I checked, most of our movement occurs in active positions & transitions. However, having good flexibility is a PREREQUISITE for MOBILITY.
Examples of each:
Passive means to improve flexibility - traditional static stretching, foam rolling, thera-gun/massage techniques, joint distractions, yin yoga, assisted partner stretching, etc.
I bet some, if not, most of you have done these things before and felt good, loose, or flexible right afterwards. But, how long did that last? Did you feel tight and restricted later that day or the next day? Why didn't the results stay? I have definitely been there before - And that is because there wasn't the right stimulus to our nervous system to make it STICK.
Active means to improve mobility - CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations) training, PAILs/RAILs, and integrative movement. These different principles influence our nervous system to help CREATE space in our joints, as well as joint capacity and tissue resiliency. - This helps it STICK. However, it takes TIME. The nervous system can be tricked/influenced easily. Our biology takes TIME to change.
Active mobility starts at the JOINT level. If you want a particular movement to work well for you, the individual moving parts (joints) must be able to function as they were meant to.
When our joints don't have the capacity for a particular movement and the demands of the movement exceed it, that's an injury waiting to happen. But I can go into more detail about that on a different post.
So take away message from this:
Training for flexibility is great and okay, as long as it's followed by ACTIVE means. In fact, slight SMR work or corrective stretches can help mobility training tremendously. It opens up the gates a bit more to tap into our joints better.
If you have any questions about this information, please don't hesitate to message and ask! I'd be glad to elaborate some more.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
As some of you may know, I've been working on offering a MOBILITY class at my studio! A lot of you voted on a day and time, so I've finally got it finalized.
Mobility classes at The ZHU will begin: Thursday March 7th, 2019 at 6PM - they will be offered every Thursday at 6PM after that.
If you're not a member at my studio, that is perfectly okay. No membership needed for this class. It's just one flat drop in rate for $35.
Class will be 1 hour long in a small group setting. As of now, no more than 8-10 people. If those numbers change, I will let you all know immediately.
Any questions or concerns about this class, please feel free to message me at:
thezhu.tmf@gmail.com
I'm extremely excited to bring this to a wider level for my community here in Riverside, CA!
Yours in strength,
Andrew Flores